Battle of Ariel

The Battle of Ariel was a pyrrhic Seleucid victory won over the rebellious Jewish Maccabees at Ariel in Samaria in 163 BC as a part of the Maccabean Revolt. The Maccabean leader Judas Maccabeus led an army out of Jerusalem to challenge an invading Seleucid army under Patrocles, but the Seleucids had the advantage of defending the high ground against the Jewish rebels, whose assaults on the hill were repelled with heavy losses. Maccabeus was killed while valiantly leading a last stand during the Jewish army's rout, but enough Jewish soldiers survived for the army to retreat intact to the south of Jerusalem, where Agathon Ezekiel assumed command of the army.

Background
In 164 BC, the Maccabees, a traditionalist Jewish national liberation movement led by Judas Maccabeus, triumphantly liberated the Judean capital of Jerusalem and cleansed the Second Temple of pagan idols before restoring traditional worship there. With Jerusalem in Jewish hands, Judea's Seleucid overlords sent a new army of over 2,000 troops under Patrocles to invade and reconquer Judea. Judas Maccabeus raised fresh units to reinforce his army, which was still replenishing its strength from reconquering the capital. Hoping to prevent the Seleucids from reaching Jerusalem, he led his numerically-superior army out of the city and marched into Samaria, where the Seleucid army had reached after a season of marching; Maccabeus was reinforced by the small garrison of Jerusalem, commanded by Jonathan Jacob. The two armies met at Ariel in the desert.

Battle
The Seleucids took up a strong defensive position on a hill overlooking the battlefield, and they also positioned onagers on their flanks, ensuring that any Jewish attack would be met with heavy rocks. Maccabeus ordered his army to attack the Seleucids in three places, but each maneuver would have to involve charging uphill against the Seleucid forces. The Jews initially had momentum on their side, overwhelming the first line of Seleucids. However, the quality of the Seleucid soldiers over the guerrilla warfare-inclined Maccabees began to show as the melee bogged down into a competition of experience, and the Jews were unable to create the mass rout which Maccabeus had envisioned. One by one, the Jewish units began to peel away, and the retreat of several Jewish units allowed for the Seleucids to close in on the remaining Jewish units from multiple sides. Eventually, Maccabeus resigned to his impending defeat and ordered for every remaining Jewish unit to charge on Patrocles' bodyguard unit of royal peltasts and seek to kill the Seleucid general. The Jews were then surrounded by the Seleucids, and Maccabeus and his remaining followers fought to the death.

Aftermath
Maccabeus' death was a heartbreak for the Jewish independence movement, but disaster was ultimately averted due to three major factors. Firstly, enough Jewish units had survived intact for the Maccabees to survive another day, with the remnants of the army withdrawing to the south of Jerusalem and appointing Agathon Ezekiel as their new general. Secondly, Patrocles had suffered such heavy losses that he was unable to continue the advance to the now-undefended city of Jerusalem. Thirdly, while Agathon re-entered Jerusalem and recruited additional forces to the cause, Patrocles' army stood their ground in Samaria without returning to Seleucid territory to replenish after their losses, and this enabled the Jews to finish off the weakened Seleucid army at the Battle of Hazorea in 159 BC.